Although this has been covered in a few posts I thought I would create a thread about the Claire's systematic undermining of the Project Manager. We saw glimpses of this last week and it really came out today - she was disruptive, argumentative and tried to blame Sara for all the mistakes of the team.

She was very negative and not in any way a team player ... as soon as her idea was rejected (something she could directly take credit for in the boardroom) she tried to undermine Sara at every turn; at one stage trying to get the rest of the team to agree that a mistake was Sara's. (and at the end when she basically refused to give Sara credit for the victory)

She came across as a nasty piece of work and I hope that attitude ensures that she gets her comeuppance. I know they are all in it for themselves - but she doesnt work at all in the team.

It seemed odd that she was undermining her in the task but then in the board room she was the only person to speak up on Sara's behalf when Siralan asked if she was a good Team Leader.
What is she playing at ?

Well it is always difficult for teams when they are asked "how was the manager" because if they dont know whether they have won or lost. If they have won and they start to get critical - they look selfish and backstabbing because they clearly arent team players. However if they dont say anything, when it comes to further anaylsis (eg shifting the blame) they have to explain why they didnt say anything.

Claire lept in and said "sara was ok, but made some bad decisions" (eg I would have been better) and therefore already had her ammo stocked up if she was brought back to the boardroom.

I think she is a little too transparent though.

Claire saying that was almost if she believed the girls had lost and wanted to prevent being brought back in to the boardroom (as she probably would have been for undermining Sara) by being the only one to stick up for her.

I agree she was really transparent you need at least little bit of tact if you are going to suck up.

Even after the task which they had won with Sara as project manager, she appeared to show bitterness at the victory by saying that they would have lost if the boys hadn't got their costing wrong.

I mean, WTF. They won, yet she's trying to turn it into a hollow victory just because Sara was the project manager and they did well.

Yes I'm sure that the girls would have lost if the boys had done their costing properly.
.....But they didn't.
That's the name of the game.
Every single week it's ifs and buts, what if they did this? what if we did that?
You could ask 'What if?' for every single task in every single series and suggest that you may not have won if the other team didn't make a mistake, or you would have won if you hadn't made a mistake.
The fact is that every week a team wins or loses based on whether mistakes or made or not. Can she not get her head around that?

I think that she feels bitter that any mistake Sara made wasn't enough to make them lose just so that she could blame Sara for it.
But that's the game, every week both teams make mistakes along the way whether they win or lose, it just depends on if they are good at minimising those mistakes.
She appears to resent the fact that the boys made more mistakes than they did and that Sara did a pretty decent job in getting the girls to do as well enough as they did and beat the other team.

She was like this with Shazia last week. The venom just spewed out of her as she suddenly attacked Shazia out of the blue.

I liked it when one of the other girls defended Sara when she tried to slag her off and blame her for something, and Sara wasn't even there. I hadn't noticed her before but after tonight I really liked her. I can't remember her name though. (Helene?/Jennifer?)

Her name is Helene. I only just noticed her tonight too and thought what she said was spot on. She seems fair and a team player, unlike Claire who is all out for herself. I thought Sara did exceptionally well as a project manager and wasn't afraid to admit where she went wrong.

Both Sara and Helene are shaping up to be two of my favourites out of the girls so far.

Oh and I loved it when Sara said that she felt like telling Claire to F off.....I thought on you go girl and tell her

Helene - though hard faced and tough, seems balanced and at least put Clare right when she was trying to pin the entire blame on Sara.

The boys didn't just get their costings wrong, they also spent out too much whereas the girls were in profit before they started serving food - and it was Jennifer that pointed that out .

The costings was a moot point anyway - they were set on the basis of what Kevin said he would pay in a restaurant for food and it was shown later when he was trying to work out how many tomatoes to buy that he has no head for number at all. The boys at the printers queried whether anyone would pay that much and so Ian reduced them to what they thought they should be - also fairly randomly.

What's puzzling is last week the boys were shown ringing up a laundry and finding out what they charged, so why did that not occur to anyone in their team this week?

Simple. She was worried they would lose and wanted Sara to not bring her back to the boardroom, which she would have done anyway.

Claire really is not right for the job. Everything that was said in the OP is true.

Claire then couldn't wait to bitch her head of after the result, to say Sara was useless and how they won because the boys messed up. I can see Clare being as unliked as Jenny if she keeps this up

If the girls had lost, Claire would have been fired because a number of them I believe (including Helene) would have told Sir Alan about Claire's behaviour and how she refused to support Sara etc

I thought it was awful the way she treated Sara last night...........she was the same with Shazia last week. Makes me wonder if thats not a coincidence !

As much as I dont like Claire, shes not a racist or anything like that. Basically she follows the same strategy every week- aligns herself with the 'popular' crowd, tries to undermine someone, when the boardroom is approaching she starts sucking up to the person she undermined, and then when out of the boardroom unleashes a torrent of bitchiness.

She will do the same next week, regardless of who is the team leader.

She went a bit wrong this week because she misjudged Saras standing in the group. I think Sara is quite popular amongst the girls and thus we saw Helene sticking up for her, and it appeared the two Jennifers were behind her aswell. The main people in the girls group are Irish Jennifer, Helene and Sara- they are the ones which are capable, and thus everyone else wants to attach themselves to them.

It was Claire who said something along the lines of "I will trample over anyone to get what I want" on her VT.

Says it all really.

LOL I don't think Claire is racist!

Just an annoying moaner , that's all. I hated the fact that she was so inconsistent with her stance on Sara throughout and after the task. I was glad when Helene put her into her place.

I disagree that she was undermining her. She wasn't happy, and she was moaning a lot until Sara told her to shut up, but then she got on board and worked hard to make it a success. She even sort of admitted her mistake by being the only person willing to praise Sara in the boardroom.

It will be interesting to see Jen and Claire go up against each other, as they both seem quite happy to bitch and stab people in the back...

I can't stand her. I really wanted the girls to lose the first task when she was project manager so her head would have been on the chopping block. She's a nasty piece of work.


Only to then be seen criticising her behind her back and going against what she had said in the Boardroom.

She is definitely my least favorite after Jenny. It was her fault Shazia went last week as she put the idea in Sir Alan & Jenny's heads.

Would love to see Claire and Jen go head to head in the boardroom and then BOTH get fired.

Clever gal IMO as she realises to defend her meant she would not be brought back into the boardroom if the gals had lost the taks

I am not too keen on her and think she would happily stab people face to face and not bother going behind your back

I thought it was actually quite a good strategy to use early on, but she won't be able to carry on doing that as there are fewer contestants. I would definitely like to see her as PM next week. Also I did actually think that her idea of doing english pub grub was better. The profit they made was still rubbish when you think they didn't have wages etc taken out.

Hello, sorry to butt in, but I'm pretty sure it was Helene who mentioned Shazia going home and ruining the system for identifying laundry rather than Claire, she may well have rammed the point home.

i thought Claire's idea of english pub grub was RUBBISH. the King's Head in islingon is a very famous Theatre Pub, and as such is one of the most cosmopoltain in the country. The clientele there are quite adventurous and eclectic. I'm sure they'd appreciate the drama of bollywood over pie and mash.

You are correct. I don't understand the support on the message boards for Helene. I think she's the most machiavellian candidate there - at least with Jenny & Claire, you know where you stand with them.

She's like a fat version of one of Girls Aloud.